Dead Space: Independence
by Ryuzaki931
Summary: Fanfic of Dead Space, One of my favorite games of all time...next to fallout, xD Hope you likes :)
1. Prologue

Prologue: Altman Be Praised 

Every day is a gift, my mother used to tell me. She always used to say God always loved his children and He would never let us down in our moment of need. That all changed with the creation of Unitology and their martyr, Michael Altman.

Fuckin' Unitologists, the belief that life after death and that ascending into another life is bullshit, or so I thought before I arrived on the world of Freedom's Progress. Everything I know or I thought I knew was gonna change within a few hours, I just didn't know until it was too late…..

"What's the problem here?" the officer said as he walked into the room.

"These two had a scuffle outside of the door." The secretary stood up from her desk and stood in between me and Tyler. "This one nearly killed the other one." He said pointing at me.

The officer looked at me and sighed. "What happened this time, JR?"

"Don't call me JR, that name isn't me anymore." I said, scowling.

"Nevertheless, what happened?"

"Nothing, nothing happened, just a slight disagreement." I looked up at the officer and noticed the P-Sec logo on his uniform. "Since when do you work for P-Sec?" I asked.

"Since the C.E.C. bought this colony and is maintaining it, it's none of your business. Ma'am, come with me please?" They walked outside and I could hear them murmuring through the window.

"What are you expecting to happen?" Tyler asked me. "What are you thinking?"

I looked over at him. "I'm thinking that they'll let us go, don't worry. By the way, thanks for staging that for me." I held out my hand.

"No problem, bro." He took my hand and shook.

"He's coming back." I took my hand away and crossed my arms on my chest.

"All right, you two, you're free to go." He said, waving us out of the office. "Just don't let me catch you guys fighting again."

I shot Tyler an "I told you so" look and ran outside, towards the bench and opened up my RIG Link. "Hey, Jennifer, are you still mad at me about this morning?"

"Why don't you come home and figure it out?" She shut down the link and I raced home as fast as I could. Ten minutes later, I made it to my front door of my apartment and walked inside. "Jennifer, where are you?" I peeked my head inside and saw nor heard nothing. "Jennifer, come on, don't still be mad at me, please…." I turned around only to have her jump on top of me and start kissing me.

"Does it look like I'm still mad at you?" She said, smiling.

"Come here." I pulled her closer and breathed her presence in and started to kiss her again, walking slowly toward our bedroom.

"Where are you taking me?" She said a mischievous smile on her face.

"You'll see."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Just another Freaky Day In My Life 

I woke up, more like jumped awake somewhat, but calmed down when I saw Jennifer was next to me. I curled my arm around her stomach and laid behind her, pulling her closer.

"JR, let me sleep…" She said, chuckling a little bit.

"Sleep? You want to sleep?"

"Uh-huh, sleep."

"Alright, babe." I kissed her cheek and got up from the bed and into the living room.

"Come back to bed, I didn't tell you to leave…" she said, tiredly.

"I'm letting you sleep, go to sleep."

"You suck."

"I know." I said, laughing. I sat my desk and opened my drawer, pulling out my pad and started practicing my Unitology alphabet drawing. 'I don't see what's so good about Unitology', I thought to myself, 'They're just a bunch of religious freaks like every other person in the universe.' It never made any sense to me, what Unitology was and what it means to everyone, I just never understood the logic and devotion behind it. I looked behind me into our bedroom and saw Jennifer there in all her beauty and wondered to myself how I could have gotten such a beautiful angel like her. I raised my head a little more to make sure she was still in bed and went inside the secret compartment I made into my desk. "Come on, where are you…" I reached but grabbed nothing but air until my hand wrapped around the plush square box. "Gotcha." I pulled it out and opened, looking at the ring. It took me a little while to gain enough cash but in the end, it was worth it because I was asking her to marry me later.

"JR, what are you doing?" She got up from the bed and started to walk towards me.

"Hold on, don't move." I rushed to put the box somewhere else where she wouldn't see it and ended up throwing it in the drawer with my pad.

"What was that, huh?" she said, coming closer and sitting down on my lap.

"Nothing, nothing at all." I smiled and she knew what was on my mind.

"JR, I know you better than you know your self, and besides, you're very bad at lying." She touched her lips against mine and we kissed for what seemed like days. "So, are you gonna tell me?" she was smiling that wonderful smile that I loved from her.

"Later, I promise. You won't regret it." I pulled her closer and held her tight.

"Tell me now, please…"

"Later, Jennifer." I kissed her once more before I took her off of me and started to get dressed for work.

"Oh, that reminds me…hold on, and stay right there." She left into the bedroom and came back out a few minutes later with something in her hands.

"What's this, babe?"

She opened her hands and showed me a chunk of black rock. "I don't know, I found it coming home last night. It looked weird and I thought you might have liked it."

"Let me see." I said, as I took it from her hand and twirled it in mine. It was rough, like a tree trunk but the surface was very smooth. There were lines on the outside and what looked like symbols in between them. "Wow, thanks baby." I pulled her in and kissed her. "Watch this." I went into my drawer in my desk and took out a lanyard, making it into a necklace with the rock as a sort of charm.

"You like it? You really do?" she looked ecstatic and very cheerful that I had put it on.

"I love it, baby." I started to walk out of the apartment, pulling her in for a kiss one more time before leaving. "Wait for me later on tonight, you won't be sorry."

"I know, I love you." She said to me.

"I love you too, Jennifer."

"About time you show up, what took you so long, huh?"

"Sorry, I just woke up a little late." I arrived at work, and the boss was riding my ass.

"You better not do it again, watch what will happen…"

"Shut up", I snapped at him, "First, I'm having way too good a day for you to mess it up now and Second, I'm the best tech you have here, so you cant afford to lose me at all."

"That maybe so, doesn't mean that you have the luxury of coming whenever and however you want, it doesn't work that way."

"Listen, this is the first time I've come late since I started here, give me a break."

The boss looked at me, pondering the truth in my words. "Alright, ill let you off this time, don't do it again."

'Yes, sir." I work on the colony's computer systems and have my own RIG that I created with a friend on The Sprawl, a space station orbiting Jupiter's moon Titan. We called it the Hacker RIG and in all actuality, it was his design mixed with my technical genius. I went into the changing room and put on the RIG, which was essentially a pair of specially made jeans, shirt, and jacket mixed with an advanced RIG Link system and a helmet for spacewalks and vacuum environments, and also boosters built in the suit so I could be able to work in Zero G.

"Ready to go to work today?" my work buddy John asked me.

"Yeah, hold on." I pulled up my RIG Link and calibrated the systems on the suit, making sure that it was ready to go. "We're all good, let's go." I put the necklace back around my neck and walked with John to my station.

"John, hold this for a sec." I handed him a piece of wiring while I connected a receptor to the other end.

"This thing is heavy; can't you put the thing on without me having to carry it?" John had a look of stress on his face.

"Just put it on my shoulder and hold the other end, I need two more minutes." I felt the pressure of the wire on my right shoulder through the RIG. I finished plugging in the receptor to the wiring and helped John carry back down on the floor. "See, wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Fuckin' thing was heavy; who knew a pile of wires could weigh so much?"

"Stop being such a wuss." I said, laughing as we walked back to the control panel. "Let's see if this works…" I pulled up my RIG's internal computer and put in a special code I created to test the connection I had just made. "If this works the way it's supposed to, the light should be flickering right about…." No sooner than I said that, the lights began to pulsate on and off.

"Goddamn, JR, you are good." John told me.

"I know, it's a gift." I said, closing the display of my RIG.

'Make Us Whole Again, JR…..Make Us Whole Again' a kind of ghastly voice echoed in my head.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what, JR, what are you talking about?" John looked at me like I was insane.

"I don't know, I thought I heard something."

"Like what?"

"Like a voice, I don't know, it's probably nothing." I grabbed my satchel and began to walk out of the corridor and outside into the fresh air. "Come on; let's go get something to eat."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: EarthGov Tells Us "Fuck You"

"What the fuck is that?"

"What?" John came out and looked up into the sky. "That looks like a gunship, an EarthGov gunship, what the hell are they doing here?"

"I don't know, we're way off the map, and still getting settled here. Weird, really weird." I kept walking to the central base so I could get the RIG off of me and back to Jennifer to propose to her.

"JR, what's that?" John grabbed my shoulder and turned me the other way, facing the horizon and the setting sun.

"What am I looking at?" I tried to focus in on what he wanted me to see. Then, in the distance, I saw a structure that kind of looked like a DNA Double Helix but had a kind of blood red hue on it. "John, what the fucking hell is that?"

"I don't know, but I think you should get to Jennifer as fast as you can." He started to push me away toward the base when the structure seemed to screech and bursts of light where being fired from it. The screech bored into my head and made my ears ring, it was like nails on a chalkboard times 1,000,000, and took me off my feet temporally. It was then that I heard the voice again.

'This new marker must be stopped, JR. You must Make Us Whole Again…'

"What the hell, what do you want from me?" I screamed out into the air.

"JR, come on, let's get inside the base." John brought me to my feet and walked into the base, but what we saw in there was pure horror. All of the personnel, all of the people that I and John knew somewhat from working with them, were all strewn across the floor. It was a mass suicide and most had both tied a bag around their heads and suffocated or they blew their brains out. "John, what the fuck happened here?"

"I don't know, JR, I don't know….."

I looked over at John's face and saw that he was at a total loss for words and emotion, and that condition was slowly creeping over at me. "We need to get out of here, John." I tried getting to my feet and slowly come up when the voice returned again.

'This is the beginning, you must stop the Marker from triggering the Convergence event on this planet, and you need to stop it at all costs…'

Pain shot from my forehead to deep inside my head in my brain. It was just a massive headache that rumbled in my head for a good amount of time.

"JR, hold on." John caught me before I hit the floor and laid me down on the couch in the lobby of the base. "Listen, I'll be back, JR." He looked at me and started to walk away when we both heard his voice.

"Stop right there." The man was dressed in a weird sort of white clothes that resembled doctors' coats and had a blue ring on his ring finger. "Where do you think you're going?" he said to John.

"I'm going to get help…please help us….." John pleaded with the man.

"I am sorry but I am only here for him, and you, my son, must go into the embrace of the plan God has for you." Just then, a sort of creature with what looked like scythes for hands, grabbed hold of the man and tore him to shreds.

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" John picked me up from the couch and we ran outside, towards the next base building. "What the fuck was that, was that a Fuckin Alien?"

"Just keep going, man…" my head was still pounding and pain was still shooting through all parts of my brain.

"Alright, hold on" John opened the next base building's door and locked it promptly after we were inside.

"What is this building?" I asked him.

"I think this is the Mining building, I'm not sure…" He walked around and found one of the stores in the front of the office. "Ok, Ok, let's see…."

I tried getting to my feet and stood up for a little bit, investigating the area we were in. "John, here…" he turned and caught the Miner RIG schematic I threw at him.

"What do I need this for? You need it more than I do."

"No, my RIG stays on me, we never know when we're gonna need to hack our way through something."

"Right, it's safer that way." He uploaded the schematic to the store and turned towards me.

"Little help here; I don't have these kinds of credits"

I walked toward him and saw that the RIG was 110,000 Credits. "Two seconds." I pulled up my RIG's internal computer and gained access to the store's CPU. "Go inside." The display on the store disappeared and he stood inside, bolted to the metal platform.

"This isn't gonna hurt, right?" he asked me.

"I don't know, I put on my own RIG." I looked at him and a grin spread across my face. "Just stay calm." I finished tinkering with the computer and shut down my RIG's computer. The door from the store closed and a bright white line came down from the top to the bottom of the door and when it opened, John stepped out with the Mining RIG on.

"Feels weird, heavy." He flexed his arms and the flaps on his shoulders popped up and came back down. The helmet began to cover his face and he looked around, testing how far he could turn his head. "Yeah, this is very weird." He started to walk and nearly lost his balance.

"I think it's gonna take some getting used to." I said, looking up at his helmet.

"Let's see if we can find some weapons, I don't think that thing was very friendly…" He started forward and took baby steps at a time, trying to get used to the unmanuverability of his new RIG. We ended up in the equipment room and found a mining tools locker.

"Let me see if I can open this…." I said, trying to pull up my RIG's computer before John kicked the door in. "Huh."

"Well, now we know this RIG is a powerhouse." He said, his helmet coming down, letting me see his face.

"Just had to show off, right?" I said, laughing.

"Shut up and let's get something."

I looked around and saw all the different tools on the wall. Assorted tools such as a 211-V Plasma Cutter, a Handled Gravitron Accelerator, and an IM-822 Handheld Ore Cutter Line Gun as well as a few others. "Well, we have free reign over what to choose." I looked over at him and saw him looking down. "What is it?"

"Look." He handed me two modules. "I've heard of these from the miners….this one is a Stasis Module." He handed me a little platform type attachment that had a sort of half-cylinder on the end of it. "Put it on your left forearm, the focus in the center of your palm." I slipped it over my arm and linked it to my RIG. Immediately, it came to life and shined blue.

"Wow, it's indescribable."

He handed me the next module. "This is a Kinesis Module. Put it in front of the Stasis."

I placed the next module on the platform and the Kinesis Mod lit up. "Ok, let's see if this works…" I aimed for the box on the desk and fired the Kinesis line, grabbing it and pulling it toward me. "Wow, this is insane. How do you know about these, John?"

"I've had to work with them before." He handed me one of the Plasma Cutters on the wall and a Rivet gun. "Let's go."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Black Is The New Insane

We walked out of the equipment room, Plasma Cutters at the ready, when I got a R.I.G call.

"Hello?" The screen was covered in static and not much could be seen.

"Maybe when that thing turned on or something, it's creating this interference." John suggested.

"Yeah, probably." I tried adjusting the R.I.G's signal, so I could get some contact when I heard her voice.

"JR, You there?" I heard Jennifer's voice saying. "Please tell me you're still alive."

"Jennifer, can you hear me?"

I heard the panic leave her voice and she spoke again. "Yes, I can hear you, JR. What's going on out there?"

"Listen to me very closely, Jennifer….stay in the room at all times. Me and John are coming to get you, just don't go anywhere."

"Ok, babe." She nodded her head. "I love you, JR."

"I know. I'm coming for you, Jennifer." I shut down the R.I.G Link and looked over at John. "How long?"

"I don't know, the living complexes are on the other side of the colony….probably a few hours if we rush over there." His eyes looked like he didn't believe what he was saying.

"Is there a faster way to get there?" I looked at the map on John's R.I.G map holo. "What about there?" I saw a route that seemed to go directly to the living complexes.

"We can't go that way. It's not safe."

"Why the fuck not?" I said, trying not to lose my cool.

"Because going that way would make us cross paths with that thing out there." He showed me in the holo where that structure was. "We don't know what that thing is yet and if it's dangerous."

"That creature that was in there is dangerous and we still don't know where it went. We have to take the risk, John."

"JR, What's gonna say if that thing isn't gonna mess with our head or kill us or something like that?

"Listen, we need to do what we can, as best we can, for now. We need to get to her first, and then, we need to fucking find a way out of here."

"How are we going to get out of here, JR? Do you have a ship here, do you even own one? How in the fuck are you supposed to get off this rock?"

"That gunship landed somewhere, we're gonna find it and leave here." John looked at me like I was crazy and was about to say something when we heard a screech from behind us.

"What the Fuck?" We turned, readying our plasma cutters and what we saw we couldn't comprehend. It walked on its hands and looked like it had some type of a tail with a blade at the end of it. To be honest, it looked like a human scorpion.

"John, what do we do?" I never took my eyes off of it, and aimed the Cutter in its direction.

"I don't know, JR…."

Just then, it jumped from the ground to the side of the building with amazing speed. I aimed at it again, pulled the trigger and sent the bolt of energy shooting towards it. I hit it in the arm and took it off cleanly but somehow it was still moving.

"John, what do we do now?" I said, looking at him.

"Just Keep Shooting!"

I turned around and saw that thing that killed the guy with the blue ring. "John, There!" I began to just pull the trigger and start firing. They were surrounding us, more and more and more just kept coming. I pulled out the Rivet gun and stuck a few to the wall but it was hardly doing anything to stem the tide of these things.

"John, What Do We Do?!" I screamed.

"Take As Many With Us As We Can!" He said, firing his Cutter wildly.

I closed my eyes and accepted the inevitable, and thought of Jennifer for one last time….When my head started to pound and the voice came back again.

'You are Important, JR, you are the one to destroy this Marker. You will not die now.'

I screamed because of the utter pain from my head and opened my eyes to see the rock Jennifer gave me raising in the air, tethered only by the lanyard around my neck. The rock glowed blue and began to shine a brilliant light which pulsated like the structure the Gunship dropped off.

"JR, What the Fuck?" John looked at the rock and at me when he noticed I was levitating off the ground as well. "JR!"

All I felt was the blue light and the pulses, seconds between each one. I felt completely at peace and it was in this peace that I heard the voice again.

'You must stop this new Red Marker…..these things are called Necromorphs…..You Must Make Us Whole Again.'

The light pulsed faster and faster until it disappeared and I started to fall to the ground.

"JR!" I felt myself slowing down and hitting the ground softly. "JR, talk to me, man…."

'You must be cautious, now they know of the existence…..Protect yourself at all costs.'

I opened my eyes slightly and saw myself bathed in a blue-ish light, the stasis shot that John used to catch me. "What happened?" I managed to get out of my mouth.

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you and it actually happened to you."

"I lifted off the ground? Like totally off the ground?" I stared at John in disbelief as he was recalling the events to me that happened after we were surrounded by those things the voice told me were Necromorphs.

"Yeah, it was that thing around your neck. Whatever it is, it saved our ass because we were fucked."

"What did it do to them?" I looked around and found no traces of the creatures anywhere.

"I don't know, it just pulsated blue and out and they all turned into nothing. Where did you get that from?"

"Jennifer gave it to me…..she found it yesterday and gave it to me this morning." I took it out of my shirt and held it in my hands, looking at it.

"Well, whatever it was, saved our ass…so, lets not question it."

"Good idea…help me up." John got me to my feet and I picked up my plasma cutter on the floor. "So, now what?" John asked me.

"We keep moving…towards Jennifer…come on…."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Liars, Fighters, and Necros

John and I kept walking through the colony inching closer and closer towards the double helix structure that the shard of black rock called a "Red Marker".

"JR, do you hear that?" John asked, pausing in-between steps to listen.

I listened as best as I could and I heard pulsing. "Sound like a heartbeat…" I said, saying the first thing that came to my mind.

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?"

I shrugged my shoulders and walked ahead a bit with the Plasma Cutter aimed in front of me. "John, come on." I said to him. As we turned the path, we found what was causing that pulsing sound, one of those creatures as before, but this one was stuck to the wall and if I didn't know any better, was guarding the door. As soon as it caught sight of us, it gave out a dreadful screech/scream and four tentacles came out of it.

"JR, Out of the Way!" John pulled me toward the wall he was hiding behind as a pod-looking thing shot out of it.

"What the FUCK?!" I looked back towards the Guardian and saw the pod-looking thing sprout a tentacle of its own and fire what looked like a spike at me. "John, we have to take that thing out!"

"How?"He looked at me for a plan.

I racked my brain for something I could use to damage it. "John, give me the Line Gun."

"Why?"

"Just fucking do it, John." He gave me the Line Gun and I looked back at the Guardian and saw there were at least 5 of the pods. "Here goes nothing." I fired a Stasis Shot at the Guardian and shot a mine above it.

"You alright, JR?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I hadn't expected the mine to be shot out with such force that my arm became like jello. "Here, take it back." I said, giving back to John the Line Gun and Pulling out my Plasma Cutter. "Let's see if this works…" I fired a plasma bolt at the tentacles of one of the pods and it immediately fell limp and exploded after a few seconds of laying there. "John, Shoot off the tentacles!" He came and stood next to me and began to help me clear out the pods.

"JR, we have bigger problems now."

I turned to look at the Guardian. The mine only did half of its job and damaged it halfway, two of its tentacles appeared from within the inside of its body. It gave another shriek and began to prepare to fire another pod when John fired a Stasis Shot at it.

"Shoot the Tentacles off!" He screamed as he lined up his Plasma Cutter and took off one of the two.

I did the same and took the second one clean off and the Guardian twitched a few times before falling limp and stopped making sounds. "What the Hell?"

"I know, JR, I know."

I walked toward it, trying to make sure that it was actually dead. "John, come look at this." I beckoned him closer and started to inspect the Thing on the wall.

"What is it? It looks like the other Things from earlier but doesn't look like it moves around….i looks like it was placed here intentionally."

"Like a Guardian, right?" I stared at the creature one more time and told John we had to keep moving.

"Where are we?" John asked me as we walked through the building.

"I don't know…I've never been this deep inside the colony before….never had the access." I pulled up the map of the colony on my R.I.G and John came closer. "This is that Structure is at, and here is…..where we are." I put markers on both locations and where Jennifer was.

"JR, I don't mean to sound like an asshole….but this is suicide…we should focus on getting off this place and getting help. Jennifer wont probab…."

I decked him in the face before he finished his sentence and stood over him. "Don't you ever say something like that again….if you value your life…" I let him go and walked away, trying to cool down. I couldn't leave her here, I loved her and I will make sure she gets off of here and we'll go somewhere far away where no one will bother us. I looked down at the rock around my neck and gripped it.

"JR….I'm…"

"Don't worry about it, its fine…Just…Its good…." I put the rock back in my shirt and brought back up the Map. "Jennifer's not too far…We can get to her and then we're gonna find that ship and get off of here. Sounds like a plan?" Before John could answer me, the bay doors opened and we hid behind a couple of boxes.

"What the fuck?" John and I peeked our heads over and saw a group of security and a old guy staring at the "Red Marker".

"Is everything set?" the old man spoke.

"Yes, Overseer….the Marker is working at full capacity, although I wouldn't advise us staying here any longer." One of the guys in a Security Suit said.

"Do not worry about me, son….the Divine Grace of the Marker is not lost on me…I am fully aware of its effects." He pulled out a datapad and looked like he was making notes till one of the other men came up to him.

"Sir, we have two life signs close by…"

"Yes, somehow there are always survivors but I hardly think that is something worth reporting…"

"But Sir, you didn't let me finish…There is…."

The old man pulled out a pistol and shot the man between the eyes. "Never tell me when to listen." He regarded the man and extracted the information from his R.I.G. "Put him somewhere where he will be reborn without delay."

"Yes, Sir." Two men carried the body away.

"Son, what does this mean?" The old man asked.

I could see the datapad from here and from what it looked like they were tracking some type of signal and it was in our direction. "John, I think that's our exit cue…" We sneaked away but something was bothering in the back of my head….what in the hell could they be tracking?

"Overseer, if I'm reading this correctly, that would mean that we have located the missing shard."

"The cosmos are kind to us, aren't they? Find the location of the lost shard."

"Sir, will it matter?

"The Black Marker was the Genesis, and that shard is the only pure sample we have left, and we will have more problems if we don't find it before it destroys this Marker."

"Yes, Sir, Right away."


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Love is Not Lost on Necros

We ran, following the locator back to Jennifer when we ran into the group of guys.

"Where do you think you're going?" one of them asked me.

I started to think of a witty comeback when something that looked like a baby jumped up on the wall. "John, look." It moved silent and inched closer to the Security group.

"I said, where do you think you're going?

"I don't know, but I think you'll be surprised where you'll end up." At that moment, three tentacles came out from its back and it began launching spikes from them. "John, Come On!" I pulled him and we just started running when we ran into another group of Necromorphs.

"Come On, Fuckers! Bring It On!" John readied his Plasma Cutter and was gonna fire when he noticed they weren't even paying attention to us. Instead they were heading to the Security Group, with deadly intent.

"John, Jennifer's not too far, Let's GO!" We continued running till I recognized the building that me and Jennifer's apartment was.

"JR, what the fuck is that?" He pointed my attention towards the path ahead of us. He readied his Plasma Cutter again.

"John, stay calm." From what it looked like, it was a big creature. It was easily 7 feet tall and broad with a kind of brutish figure. As it turned to face me and John, I was both amazed and disturbed by this thing. It had armored plates covering yellow bulbs on the shoulders and walked quadtrapedal, using its arms as well as its legs to propel itself, and when we came into its view, it gave out a roar and began to charge at me and John. "MOVE!" I pushed John out of the way and picked up a Pulse Rifle from one of the dead guys in Security Suits and aimed at its head. "Come on, You FUCKER!" I yelled, pulling the trigger.

"JR, it's not doing anything!" John yelled from across the way.

I was seeing that each of the shots were ricocheting off of its head and going every-which way. It turned and began to start its charge again when I fired a Stasis Shot at it.

"We can't fight it, JR. We need to go!" John was running towards the building and I followed closely behind.

"Jennifer, I'm here." I called her on my R.I.G.

"JR? I'll open the door."

"No, they're right behind us…just stay put, baby." John and I were within a few feet of my apartment when we saw the creatures with the scythes for hands.

"Just run through them, JR."

I readied my Pulse Rifle and walked forward slowly.

"JR, come on…we have to get past them quick."

I looked over at John and saw that he was scared and to my amazement, I was too. Why? Because it would be a waste of time to get back to Jennifer if I ended up dying not even a few feet from where she was. My brain was running in overdrive, trying to figure out what to do when I felt my head pounding and the voice coming back again.

'JR, Fight through them…You have the ability to do so.'

'How am I supposed to do that?' I thought to myself, not really expecting an answer back.

'You are special; JR. you have the ability to become one.'

'One?' I didn't understand what the voice was telling me.

"JR, We Have Company!"

I turned to see John raising his Plasma Cutter and firing. Aiming the Pulse Rifle, I pulled the trigger but nothing came out. "Shit, Shit, Shit." I opened the Rifle and found out that I had no more shots left, I had used them all when we were getting past the brute-thing.

"Start Shooting, What Are You Waiting For?!" John was yelling at me.

One of the creatures sneaked up on me and I instinctively put my hand up to defend myself when the rock glowed blue and pushed it back and threw it to the other side of the complex like a ragdoll. "What the Hell?" I raised my hand toward the group and concentrated, thinking to throw them like I threw the other one. The rock glowed blue once again and I could feel the power emanating from my hand, lifting and tossing them away.

"JR, what was that? That was Fucking Awesome!" He turned and saw me standing, blood running down my nose.

"John…." Was all I was able to get out before I slumped on the floor and fell in the abyss.

I was standing up, looking over the ocean. I didn't know what I was doing there, just that I was there. I heard the voice, a little more amplified now as if, I found the source of where it came from.

'It will be temporary, JR….You will live, and You will Make Us Whole.'

'Why me?" I thought.

'It's been you, always…since the beginning.'

'I don't think I'm ready for something like this….I just want to be normal'

'Being normal is non-existent….the Necromorphs are a blight on the universe and must be destroyed. You'll rid the world of them, and stop the Final Convergence from happening.'

'Final Con…what?' I heard Jennifer's voice and looked up to the sky and felt myself shifting back into reality.

"Baby, wake up…Come on, please." Jennifer was caressing my face, I could feel that. I tried to sense if John was around and found him in the corner of the living room, sitting on the couch.

"My head is killing me…" I finally said and slowly opened my eyes to the sight of my beautiful Jennifer. "Hey, Baby." I smiled.

"Don't you scare me like that again." She said, kissing me.

I felt her lips and tasted her for the first time for what seemed like a century…was it so long ago that kissed last earlier today? I didn't care, I was with my love and my friend and I wanted to be trapped in this moment forever.

"Mr. James, I presume?"

I looked up from Jennifer and saw the old guy outside the door. "What the….?"

"You have something that belongs to me, Son." He moved aside and what looked like the guy with the ring from earlier came inside with him following.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I said, aiming my Plasma Cutter, trying to protect Jennifer.

"I am just a simple Overseer of a grand plan we intend to make true." He walked toward me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "and you, have a bigger part to play than all of us."


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Truth or Death

Keeping my Plasma Cutter trained on the "Overseer", I pulled out the rock from my shirt and dangled it in front of me. "What is this?"

"That is what makes all this possible, that is our genesis, which is the great and powerful Black Marker."

"Black Marker? Like that thing outside?"

"No, completely different…the Red Marker outside is a flawed copy. The Black Marker is 100% pure."

I tucked it back in my shirt and stared down the old man. "You know you sound like fanatics, right? How can any of this be a good thing? Those creatures out there, everything…all of this is wrong."

"You are entitled to your own opinion, Mr. James…but I'm afraid that we will have to relieve the shard from your possession now." The Overseer walked forward slowly.

"Move another inch, and I will pull the trigger." I adjusted the Plasma Cutter's blade horizontally, so that if I shot the bolt I meant for him, it would take the old man's head off. "What am I? Why am I special?"

"Special….My son, you have no idea…Do you?"

"Answer My Fucking Question! What the Hell Am I?"

"You are also the genesis of something great….Why didn't we find you sooner?" He walked forward again, closing the gap between us. "You are the Genesis of The Oracle Project…our early first tests with the Black Marker shard….I see now why you are in its possession, it came back to you."

"What the fuck is the Oracle Project?"

"The project was created to create people who are not only immune to The Marker's effects but also allows them to physically manifest The Marker's Signal into abilities that can be used."

"What? Like, Powers or something? What were you trying to do? Take over the Fucking World?"

"No, we want to ascend to a higher plane of existence…the Marker can provide that for us, Convergence is near."

I looked at him, not putting down my Plasma Cutter and then looked at Jennifer. "I love you, baby." I concentrated, trying to feel out the Necromorphs and call them to us.

The Shard began to rise and pulsate the blue light faintly, and I could feel the power in my head throbbing.

"Is this what you want? Is this the power you'd like to master?" I opened my eyes and stared down the old man as the light pulsed faster. "You can't control something that is against what you stand for, what you plan to use this for. I'll see you in Hell."

Those few minutes, became the most intense of my life, not knowing what I was doing was going to work or not….because I soon as I heard the screeching, the last thing I remember doing was holding Jennifer close to me, signaling John to get ready, and giving the old man the finger as the abominations of hell came through that doorway.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Fight or Flight

How we got out of there is a wonder to even me, much less John and Jennifer. I looked around where we were and tried to gather my bearings as well as my breath. "John, you ok? "

"Yeah, that was some crazy fucking stunt you just pulled, JR."

"It worked though right? Stop complaining and help me out here." I pulled up the map from my RIG and tried to determine where we were. "So, if I'm reading this right, we're still far from the shipdocks."

"I know….which means we're going to have to find a faster mode of transportation. And after what you just pulled, looks like they're gonna be gunning for us."

"I'm aware of that." I looked over at Jennifer and sighed relief. She was ok physically, but as far as recent events were considered, she was more than a little shaken. "Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah." She smiled my smile and looked away quickly towards the corridor. "You heard that?"

"John, ready up." I pulled out my Plasma Cutter and aimed down the way. "Who's there?" My voice carrying.

"Put your Cutter down." A voice replied back.

"Fuck you." John said, his finger twitching on the Pulse Rifle's trigger.

The voice came into the light and saw that it belonged to a very stunning female. "I said, Put your Cutter down." Staring intently at me, she raised her weapon, a PFM-100 Hydrazine Torch Flamethrower, and lit the torch. "Unless, you want to be barbequed."

I lowered the Plasma Cutter, not fully holstering it in case it was necessary. "There, it's down now….calm down, alright?"

"You Earthgov?" she asked us.

"No, quite the opposite." I walked over closer to her and raised up the Flamethrower again.

"Away." She growled at me.

Just then, John ran up and wrestled it away from her and passed it over to me. "Really?" I looked at the fuel counter on the weapon and saw it was on empty.

"Had to put up a good show, you know? Didn't know who you guys were."

"We're trying to get off this rock", I said, handing her one of our extra Plasma Cutters, "If you wanna survive, we're your best chance."

She took the Cutter and inspected it. "I don't really take a lot of chances."

"Neither do we…" I reloaded my Cutter and Looked at the girl. "I'm JR."

"Amanda."

"Are you sure about this, JR?"

"Sure about what, John?" I said, slightly annoyed.

"About this girl….Something doesn't seem right about her or the way she just showed up."

"John, nothing seems right anymore….what do you think is going on? There are creatures with scythes for hands, a giant statue that looks like a DNA Double Helix, this black rock that talks to me, and I have some sort of freaky ESP powers because I'm part of a top secret project…..I think we've gone way off the reservation for normal." I brushed my hand through my hair. "She just wants to get away from this hell like we do. Is that wrong?"

"No, but we don't have the luxury of trusting a lot of people right now."

"I know….But let's make the best of it and keep moving." I looked in back of me and saw Jennifer and Amanda walking step in step with each other. "Hey, you ok?"

Jennifer looked over at me and smiled. "Yeah, you?"

"Fine….but, I'm gonna need something from you…"

"What's that?"

I walked over to her and held her close as I kissed her lips. "I love you, Jennifer."

"I love you too." She smiled my smile and held my hand as continued on our way towards the shipyards.

"John, Look left." I had the girls stay back while I and John checked out the area before the entrance to the yard.

"I see them….I told you they were gonna be gunning for you, JR…..So, how in the hell do you plan on getting through there?" I pointed John to a console on the wall opposite us.

"I can hack the system to see where exactly the ships are located and download the controls for the rest of the shipyard….in case we fall into any trouble….I just need you to watch my back….."

"Always…" John popped in a new cartridge into the Pulse Rifle and followed me over the console. "How long do you need?"

"I don't know, maybe 10 minutes…..why?"

"Because I seriously doubt we have 10 minutes…."

I looked behind me and saw the Necromorphs heading over towards the shipyard with a few of them heading towards us as well. "Leave me here, get to the girls, John."

"I'm not leaving you here, JR."

"I wasn't asking you….GET GOING NOW!" I saw him run past me and focused on the Necros. "Come on, you fucks…." I concentrated on the group and when the migraine came, used my power to take off their arms and legs, leaving them just as a torso on the floor. "Now to work…." I plugged my RIG into the console and started my work.


End file.
